News from CBS MarketWatch -- London bureau

SuzanneMiller

LONDON (CBS.MW) -- Uncanny. As a National Lottery executive was undone this week by the bribery scandal involving GTech
GTK, -2.41%
, the 500th British Lottery millionaire was being crowned at a champagne celebration at a London hotel.

As yet, there's no sign that the bribery mess has had the slightest impact on the National Lottery, one of the UK's favorite pastimes. Weekly lottery sales edged up to $48 million in the week ending Wednesday, about 3 percent more than the previous week.

"It's business as usual," said an official of Camelot, the consortium that runs the lottery on behalf of GTech and four other companies.

The controversy stems from a jury's decision on Monday that GTech founder Guy Snowden offered British tycoon Richard Branson a bribe in 1994 to drop out of bidding for the Lottery contract. As a result, Snowden was ousted Tuesday as GTech chairman. On Wednesday, Lottery regulatory chief Peter Davis was forced to step down. "The perverse thing is that these people have made more for charitable causes because they've made more for themselves."

Sally Jones Credit Lyonnais The government has been deeply embarrassed by Branson's claim that Snowden tried to bribe him. Branson, after all, had planned to run it as a charity, not pocket revenue as GTech and the other Camelot members have been doing.

Overhaul pondered

Now, Chris Smith, culture secretary, is considering an overhaul of lottery. Some of those who play the lottery say they'd be happy to see GTech banished from Camelot.

"I resented that the mandate went to an American company. Profits aren't being kept in the country. I think a lot of people were shocked that Branson didn't get it. He's home-grown," says Carole Murphy, a training coordinator who lives in London and who plays the weekly lottery.

That said, Murphy admits she won't be quitting the game in protest. Indeed, she's just joined a new office lottery pool. Murphy is one of some 80 million people who line up every week at one of Britain's 35,000 lottery ticket counters around the country, hoping for a lucky number. Since the Lottery was launched two years ago, the British public has bought $24 billion worth of tickets.

Buyout? Now there are suggestions that GTech's 22.5% stake in Camelot may be bought out by Cadbury Schweppes,
cbry-ls
De La Rue
dlar-ls
, Racal Electronics
rcal-ls
, and computer maker ICL, the other members of the Camelot consortium. The government is clearly squirming under all this talk of big profits when there are charities to be funded.

"I think there's strong pressure to make the lottery less obviously profitable for the people who run it. The perverse thing is that these people have made more for charitable causes because they've made more for themselves," says Sally Jones, an analyst at Credit Lyonnais in London. "They've run it extremely well. Now there's the risk that (the government) will get rid of people just to appease public opinion."

Public opinion may be one thing. But the public wish for riches is another. And that wish will certainly guarantee the future of the National Lottery, if not GTech's knowing hand in guiding it.

As another market analyst puts it: "There will always be a National Lottery."

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